Chidu rejigs finmin, Gujral shifted to expense account

In a sudden move two top Finance Ministry officials - Revenue Secretary R S Gujral and Expenditure Secretary Sumit Bose - were asked to swap their positions just days after P Chidambram took charge as finance minister.

“Sumit Bose has got the formal orders to assume charge as Revenue Secretary and R S Gujral too have been informed to work as Expenditure Secretary,” said a senior official . However, the official added that Gujral being the senior most officer would continue to be the Finance Secretary.

[caption id=“attachment_406625” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday went for a major restructuring of roles in the ministry. Reuters[/caption]

The overhaul is significant as Gujral presided over some of the controversial tax decisions of the government, such as the general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) and retrospective amendments to bring under the tax net cases such as the Vodafone-Hutchison transaction, which drew criticism.He was also involved in the budget proposal amend the Income Tax Act with retrospective effect to tax overseas deals involving domestic assets.

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The amendment had implication for the Vodafone case under which the British Telecom giant may have to pay Rs 20,000 crore as capital gains tax despite winning the legal

battle in Supreme Court.

GAAR, which was later criticised by overseas investors, has been subsequently referred to a new committee by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The committee will look into the concerns of investors afresh.

In the first three days of assuming charge of finance, Chidambaram has already held extensive meetings with top officials of the two revenue boards - the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Excise and Customs.

Agencies